Joe Schoen scouting college QB alternatives with Daniel Jones under the gun
New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones stretches during warmups before a preseason game against the Cincinnati Bengals at MetLife Stadium on Aug. 21, 2022. Credit: Brad Penner
The first quarterback Joe Schoen will see play live in an actual game since becoming general manager of the Giants will not be Daniel Jones.
It might be Jones’ successor, though.
Schoen said on Thursday he intends to spend plenty of Saturdays this coming fall and winter scouting college games, a return to his not-so-long-departed roots.
His first stop on that tour will be Saturday in Columbus, Ohio. Ohio State and Notre Dame will have plenty of future NFLers on the field, but the most conspicuous among them will be Buckeyes sophomore quarterback C.J. Stroud.
The Giants have not yet committed to Jones as their quarterback beyond this season, and if Schoen is in the market for a new player around whom to build the franchise next April, Stroud almost certainly will be in the conversation.
It’s a reminder of what is at stake for Jones, in case anyone has forgotten.
“I think Daniel’s in a good place,” Schoen said. “I’m happy where he is. But we all know everybody’s got to perform on Sundays. That’s when the evaluation will really start.”
For Jones and the Giants, that means next Sunday in the season opener against the Titans.
Jones knows the kind of scrutiny he is facing. After an offseason in which the fifth-year option on his contract for 2023 was declined by the Giants, a preseason in which he and the new offense struggled early on, and now the knowledge that the general manager who did not draft him is out looking for his potential replacement, he is keen to get on the field and start making the case for himself as the team’s quarterback of the future.
“I think getting to playing football and playing real games is certainly something we all look forward to, and I definitely look forward to myself,” Jones said. “There’s been certainly a lot going on, and my approach has been the same day in and day out . . . but yeah, I’m looking forward to getting going and playing football.”
No matter how impressive Stroud may be on Saturday night, chances are he won’t be making up any minds in the Giants’ front office off this one game. Things have a way of changing shape over the course of the scouting process.
There is a famous story of former Giants general manager Ernie Accorsi out hunting quarterback prospects in 2003 and watching Ben Roethlisberger tear up Louisville in the GMAC Bowl. At halftime, Accorsi got a call from John Mara telling him he did not have to stay for the remainder of the game. “He’s our guy,” Mara told him.
Four months later, Eli Manning was their guy.
This situation is different, though. The Giants may already have their guy. That’s part of what they need to figure out this season.
Schoen shied away from saying exactly what he needs to see from Jones in order to be convinced that the quarterback should stick around beyond his rookie deal with the team. There are, he indicated, no hard and fast win totals or touchdown tallies that have to be met.
“I’m not going to get into expectations,” Schoen said. “I think he played well [this preseason]. You guys were here for the Jets practice; I think he performed well in the Jets practice.”
Schoen also dismissed those early training camp struggles: “I know some people were getting on him early on. It’s [defensive coordinator Wink Martindale’s] defense, and he’s sending people from leftfield, and we’re not game-planning for that. He’s also trying to be on the same page with some of the receivers.”
Coach Brian Daboll was a little more concrete in what he will be looking for from Jones this season and the elements of his game he will be judging.
“Everything,” he said. “Your performance. Your preparation. The job of a quarterback on a team is to lead his team down and score points. Stats are great, percentage, completion percentage, all those types of things. But the biggest thing is: Can you make the right decision under pressure? It’s everybody’s job to do that, but the quarterback touches the ball on every play.”
If Jones can’t do that in 2022, the Giants will have to find someone who can in 2023.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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